Sony HT-S400 2.1 Soundbar with Powerful Wireless Subwoofer

I picked up the 2.1ch Soundbar with powerful wireless subwoofer (HT-S400) to go with the new Sony Bravia TV I recently purchased. Overall, I think it's a great peripheral for the television with several nice features as well as some that need improvement. I must acknowledge that I probably have some novice bias on this matter: I am not an expert in setting up home theatres and in the past I have been just fine using TV speakers. Thus, anything beyond that basic set-up could probably be considered an upgrade by my standard. I had this soundbar mounted right below the TV on the wall. This seemed easy enough to accomplish as all it required was setting two screws that hook into the back of the soundbar. However, I did have this professionally done by an expert that came to install a wall mount for my television at the same time (so I don't have to worry about having a crooked soundbar mounted on my wall today). The sound that comes from the soundbar is a noticeable improvement over what comes out of the TV speakers alone: it definitely is more “immersive” as the manufacturer describes. This soundbar comes with a wireless subwoofer. It's a nice speaker that adds even more depth to the already impressive sound field that radiates from the soundbar alone. It adds a lot to the low frequency sounds from the television which makes for an even more immersive experience. That being said, setting it up was a little confusing. The subwoofer has three LED lights on it that reflect it's status and for several days it would light up green when the TV turned on. This made me think that it was working just fine but in actually it wasn't since it wasn't properly synced to the soundbar at that point. This was something that I had to do manually, which wasn't too difficult. Sony does lose some points on this matter, though, since the directions in both the manual and online were pretty vague with this part of the set-up. The definitions of the LED lights they provided could have also been better, in my opinion. Something that is very nice about this particular soundbar is it's compatibility with Sony televisions. This soundbar syncs with certain Sony televisions which allows for it to power on/off in tandem with the television. The volume from the soundbar can also be controlled by the TV remote which is a nice feature too. I really like the remote that comes with this soundbar. It is very basic with not a whole lot of extraneous buttons that may or may not get used. That being said, many of the remote's features can be accessed using the television remote which negates a lot of the need for it. However, if for some reason the soundbar doesn't power off with the TV (as has happened a few times for me) it is nice just being able to press the “power” button on the soundbar remote to turn it off rather than having to use the TV remote to first power on the TV in order to try to turn the soundbar off again. This soundbar comes with a variety of customizable features that can be accessed within the menus of the television. This includes setting the bass level of the subwoofer, turning on the “Sound Field” effect, and a “Night Mode”, just to name a few. All these features are quite nice and allow for a rather deep level of customization which is something that I have enjoyed and haven't had the pleasure of doing in the past. When I think of this device's shortcomings I can't think of many that are glaring. I have already mentioned a few minor issues indirectly that I thought could stand improvement. In addition to those issues, I would be quite skeptical of how effectively this soundbar would integrate into a full home theatre system let alone with non-Sony brand televisions/products. My biggest complaint for this device is that it needs to be updated via firmware updates. Firmware updates are not very convenient and can be easily overlooked. It would have been nice had Sony found a way to allow for the device to update via the connection to the television: after all, the television can receive updates online since it's connected to the internet so why can't the soundbar be updated online too if it's connected to the TV? That's just a thought, though. Overall, this has been a big upgrade to my sound system and entertainment center. I really appreciate it and am enjoying it quite a bit. I would recommend it to anyone that is using a compatible Sony-brand television. Thanks.